Hyatt launches a double points promotion for hotels outside the Americas

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• Max says:

  27 Sep27 September 03:35

  The envisaged Eurostar partnership is probably more related to legacy Thalys. Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schipol airports both have train stations, which technically could be connected by adding stops to the current Paris Gare du Nord – Amsterdam Centraal service. The journey might even be quicker than the so many AF KLM flights between those two airports…

  • RussellH says:

    27 Sep27 September 10:46

    > Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schipol airports both
    > have train stations, which technically could be connected by
    > adding stops to the current Paris Gare du Nord – Amsterdam
    > Centraal service.

    Not that simple. It would involve a reversal at Aéroport Charles de Gaulle 2 TGV station, meaning that the extra station dwell time is going to be at least 5 mins (while the driver walks from one end of the train to the other), probably more like 10 mins, which would be a significant increase in travel time for those going from Paris to Bruxelles.

    • Max says:

      27 Sep27 September 12:54

      Or they create a new CDG – AMS train service altogether. Surely there are enough connecting passengers to fill a few trains

• BSI1978 says:

  27 Sep27 September 04:04

  Hyatt’s offers this year have been distinctly underwhelming, and when you consider their footprint in EMEA vs. IHG et al, it is presumably something they are aware of but unperturbed about.

  I’ll obviously register, but compared to the various other offers launched by their rivals of late, this isn’t massively exciting.

• daveinitalia says:

  27 Sep27 September 04:43

  I think (but I’m guessing too) you’re wrong in them requiring a connecting train/plane ticket. If you’re a Flying Blue member you can already earn status points on ex-Thalys Eurostar tickets bought as part of a flight connection with an AF or KL code. I did this in 2008 from Amsterdam to Antwerp.

  They say they’re the first ‘non-airline’ partner which on the face of it wouldn’t make sense as they have lots of other partners like hotels, car hire, etc but these don’t earn status points. So what they must mean is this is the first partner non-airline that’s treated like an airline (full status integration). I’d be very disappointed with this partnership if you weren’t rewarded for point to point train fares.

  Lounge access would be an interesting one, I’d hope lounge access would be given to SkyTeam elites on a point to point fare but should the lounges not be able to cope with expected numbers than possibly SkyTeam would have some sort of cop-out rule like they do with VS in their Clubhouse or DL on domestic flights.

  Your example of flying to Paris and then getting the train to Berlin makes no sense as there’s no Eurostar (including the ex-Thalys) service to Berlin

• Hilda M says:

  27 Sep27 September 07:17

  Hmm – I will be checking out on 8th October after several days in a listed Middle East Hyatt – hopefully that will count as first stay ?

• Copperfield27 says:

  27 Sep27 September 07:22

  As always the devil will be in the detail. Mapping the current eurostar loyalty levels to Skyteam would be terrific but this seems unlikely given how easy CB is to achieve. AF has been offering points earning integrated rail/air tickets from TGV stations for years.

  • S says:

    27 Sep27 September 08:04

    Lufty too

• Rich says:

  27 Sep27 September 07:49

  Paris to Berlin would be an odd example, as Berlin isn’t served by Eurostar and it’s An8 hour journey from Paris.

  I would have thought they’ll concentrate on feeding CDG and AMS from their existing routes, taking passengers from Belgium and NW Germany.

  I also envisage them offering something ridiculous, like UK-Brussels by air to AMS, then train

  • Daniel says:

    27 Sep27 September 09:02

    They already do offer that, in July I did that exact route BHX to AMS with a train to Brussels. Not sure why it’s ridiculous, it was convenient for me departing from BHX (though I can see you wouldn’t take it from London when direct eurostar/flights are available)

• Andrew. says:

  27 Sep27 September 08:42

  So can we potentially save ourselves a fortune on departure tax if our “flight”, starts in Paris on Eurostar?

  • Rich says:

    27 Sep27 September 09:54

    I’d be surprised if they want to sell Paris-London-XXX given Eurostar don’t serve any UK airport and it’s not really a SkyTeam hub.

    • apbj says:

      27 Sep27 September 10:38

      Delta and Virgin?

• Daniel says:

  27 Sep27 September 08:59

  They’ve actually already been offering Eurostar tickets on some journeys. In July I booked BHX to Brussels, a flight to AMS and then the Eurostar from Schiphol to Brussels Midi. There was a 90 minute or so transfer (although poorly signposted in the airport – if you were a novice traveller would you know you needed to exit the airport to find the train?).

  I doubt they will be offering trains to Berlin as in the article. It’s really best used for short distance connections where the train will take less than 2 hours.

  I received Flying Blue miles and XP as though the train was a flight. For short distance final connections I think it’s a good idea. Also you can do the reverse and start with the Eurostar to get to AMS.

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